In this sweeping, immersive book, R. Blake Brown outlines efforts to
regulate the use of guns by young people, punish the misuse of arms,
impose licensing regimes, and create firearm registries. Brown also
challenges many popular assumptions about Canadian history, suggesting
that gun ownership was far from universal during much of the colonial
period, and that many nineteenth century lawyers – including John A.
Macdonald – believed in a limited right to bear arms.

Arming and Disarming
provides a careful exploration of how social, economic, cultural,
legal, and constitutional concerns shaped gun legislation and its
implementation, as well as how these factors defined Canada’s historical
and contemporary ‘gun culture.’

The TOC:

Chapter 1: “Every man has a right to the possession of his musket”: Regulating Firearms before Confederation

Chapter 2: “The government must disarm all the Indians”: Controlling Firearms from Confederation to the Late-Nineteenth Century

Chapter
3: “A rifle in the hands of every able-bodied man in the Dominion of
Canada under proper auspices”: Arming Britons and Disarming Immigrants
from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Great War

Chapter 4: “Hysterical legislation”: Suppressing Gun Ownership from the First to the Second World Wars